The return home
by treegirlenator
Summary: What if there had been somebody that was deeply involved with Sirius at the time he goes and gets himself killed at the Ministry. This a short story about the return to Gimmauld Place without Sirius. Terrible summary. possible love story development
1. Chapter 1

"Oh dear sweet Circe" I exclaimed as a bedraggled group made it back to Grimmauld Place. People kept filing in, but the face that I wanted the face that I needed wasn't there. The one who I had hated and grown to love, the one that I had given my heart and soul to were not among those returning from the battle ground the that Ministry of Magic turned into. Remus was the last of the group to come through. The poor man looked ragged and worn far beyond his years. Slowly he raised his lowered eyes to meet mine. His eyes where red and raw from crying, there was also a depth of great sorrow and pain. His eyes told me all I needed to know. I let out a muffled sob. Slowly Remus approached me.

"Gemma I am so sorry." I side stepped his open arms and let out what could only be the most guttural of primal yells, one that came from the bottom of ones soul and could only pierce in the most brutal of ways the souls of those in range to hear it. I collapsed to the floor crying and screaming. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. Sirius promised me that it was a quick job and that nobody would get hurt, he was just going to help get them through the wards and into the Ministry with as little snags as possible. Why was I so stupid? Why had I believed him? I should have known better, he was always making stupid decisions when Harry was involved.

Remus had moved to the ground with me. He slowly wrapped his arms around me. I desperately hung on the him uncontrollably sobbing. Molly who was in the kitchen before the group made their way in came from the kitchen followed by the others, come to see who was making such a scene.

The person I blamed most for my pain, kneeled beside me and tried to tell me how bravely he had fought and that Sirius had saved his life.

"I wish he hadn't I wish it were you." I whispered

"Gemma, don't say that love" Remus said as he loosened his grip on me.

"Gemma, I am truly sorry." Harry started reaching for my hand

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" I screamed and slid away from both of them. Harry continued with his speech about how noble and brave Sirius had been.

"If it wasn't for you he would still be here with me. Don't you dare sit there and fucking tell me how brave he was. It was a bloody fools errand and you know it. He went to his death and if it wasn't for you and the goddamn Order keeping him not locked in this physical , but mental prison as well he would still be here with me." Harry made a move to touch me again.

" I hate you Harry fucking Potter! Don't you dare touch me!" I burst into hysterics again. Molly pushed everyone aside and pulled me into her arms and just softly rocked me till I stopped my hysterics.

"Come Gemma lets go get you a cuppa." Molly sweetly encouraged.

"I'm okay, I think…I think that I am just going to go to bed." I stood and claimed the stairs, to Sirius' room. I rummaged through his closet picking out one of his favorite coats that he wore all the time. I wrapped myself into the jacket and than into his bedding and slowly cried myself to sleep.

**A/N: Not sure if I want to continue with following chapters as the build up of the relationship between Sirius and Gemma**


	2. Chapter 2

I just finished a dual degree in muggle studies and Sociology with a focus on the use of occult at OxfordUniversity. Being from the United States it took awhile to be taken seriously by some of the blood purest, eventually some came around after I could show an untainted blood line that was only in the United States for two generations. The fact that it took that for pure bloods to give me the time of day made me pretty sick. I had been previously warned about the prejudice of bloodlines in Europe before. I just didn't believe it, fuck the war and You-know-who!

It was during my first few years of University that really defined my place in the wizarding social hierarchy. I had met and befriended Bill Weasley, an apparent blood traitor. Give me a break he was a nice guy who was studying economics on the muggle side and curse breaking in the other, his hope was to eventually get a job with the world famous Gringotts Bank. We hit it off from day one of the Intro to the Muggle World, class. It was grossly outdated class required by all dual students as a way to try and get them used to the muggle world. It was painful and only lasted a quarter, but the two of us became the fast of friends, we spent most of our days in the library together studying. He invited me home on weekends and breaks, which was awesome. I loved the fact that he had such a large family. I was an only child and an orphan at that and it was wonderful to be so welcomed in such a full home. The twins Fred and George where really my favorite members. I loved their prankster attitudes and I was really the only one that could tell the two of them apart. Plus I let them try many of their new pranks on me with little complaint. I first met them in the two years before they started Hogwarts. Charlie had graduated the year before and was taking a year off before he went off to a dragon reserve in Romania which really pissed Molly off. She felt that he was just doing this to make her mad, which in a way was exactly what he was doing. Percy was just starting his second year of Hogwarts. Ron still had four years and Ginny five. It was amazing to be welcomed into a home of such size and love. Arthur and I took a little while to warm up to each other. He drove me nuts with endless questions about things in the muggle world. I had a hard time believing that he would have such a hard time grasping thing that seemed like a no brainer. We actually bonded on a secret project of enchanting Ford Angelina. Honestly with out my help and knowledge of the muggle world and cars it never would have gotten off the ground. By the time that I got to the garage he had the whole thing torn apart and was trying to connect the electoral backwards. Honestly that was the least of our problems I don't know how else he managed it but he not only blew himself up but the work shop as well. The two of us were thick as thieves after that. He soon became the father that I lost.

It was during winter break of my final year that I was offered a job working as the new Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts for that fall. I of course readily accepted. I was more than excited to teach about the world that I spent most of my life to people to people that have lived there their whole life, part and those that will probably never step into it. It was going to be AMAZING! Honestly knowing that I was going to have a job when I was finished helped the rest of the year just fly. Like normal I spent my summers with the Weasleys. Fred and George were excited that I would be starting at the school at the same time. It was also that summer that I joined the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore thought that it couldn't hurt to have more allies for when Voldemort came back, because he felt it was only a matter of time of time. It was also by the end of the summer that I had convinced Dumbledore into letting me live in the shrieking shack, it was also then that Bill got an apprenticeship, because of that Molly threw a huge party. It was during this party that Charlie announced that he was leaving to Romania. Molly was secretly hoping that he would give up on going and join the Chutney Cauldrons, but much to her disappointment he decided that he still wanted to go and play with dragons. It was a really nice evening. Attending was the whole Weasley clan, a few Order members as well as a few friends from the University.


	3. Chapter 3

It was during the end of the night, everyone else had either gone home or off to bed in the Burrow. Bill and I were still in the orchard talking. We were discussing our future and what was going to happen for the two of us. I was just getting ready to leave with Bill pulled me in for a kiss.

"Bill…" I whispered as I pushed him off of me.

"Shhhh…you don't need to say anything. I have been thinking a lot about you and about us and I think that we should get married. Don't worry it wouldn't happen until after I am finished with the apprenticeship and…"

"Bill STOP!" I cut him off. The shock of his odd proposal had worn off. " I can't marry you, I don't think of you in that way and you know that. I love you like a brother and you are a good friend but I just cant. I'm sorry." I felt terrible I could see the look of disappointment and the hurt crushed look in his eyes, it was almost like I had ripped out his heart and stomped on it right in front of him."I'm sorry" I whispered as I apperated back to the Shack.

Things between the two of us were as expectedly weird for a long time. We stopped talking and would awkwardly avoid each other. As much as we could at the Weasley home.. it took almost a year before a cival conversation could take place between the two of us again. It wasn't a easy as before but we eventually worked some sort of strange arrangement.

Teaching at Hogwarts was great. I had a hard time the first year with complaints about why Muggle studies was something that they had to learn. These complaints mostly came from full blooded wizards that didn't want anything to do with the muggle world. I eventually figured out a charm that stifled any such complaints before the person could voice them. Yes it may have been "cheating", but honestly if it kept from having to listen to whining and complaining I didn't care.

Every once in awhile Dumbledore would send Remus and I out on various sort of assignments for the Order, most were trivial information gathering missions. Remus what a great man and the two of us bonded quickly, he was a great friend and help in my charm work, which I wasn't as great with as I would have liked. Remus and I spent even spent a lot of time out side of missions with one another. We made it a point to have lunch together at least once a month.

By my second year I got the wondrous Harry Potter, in his first year at Hogwarts. I hated that kid. It honestly it did not start that way, but there are only so many times that you can take his talking, laziness, and out right arrogance. Plus he was always getting Ron and that nosey know it all in trouble. I honestly thought that the two of them could make a better friend than Harry. I was a little miffed when my new assignment from the Order was to make sure that the three of them didn't kill themselves, this was of course after their little run in with the with the Troll in the girls bathroom, making sure that the three of them didn't do something stupid things was easier said than done. Snape and I had a mutual dislike for the Potter kid because of his arrogance and that was okay with me if I could make an ally with him I knew that my life would be a little bit better in the castle. We survived the Potter's first and second years, which honestly I did not think was going to happen. Over that summer I had planned to stay with the Weasley's, I had even agreed to watch the children for a few weeks so that Molly and Arthur could visit Charlie in Romania. That didn't happen, after being at the Burrow for a week I received an extremely cryptic message from Remus, tell me that he really needed my help with something.


	4. Chapter 4

I met him in the middle of Queens Park in Heywood. He was hiding towards the back of the park near a seemingly forgotten fountain and path. As I walked by Remus grabbed me and pulled me into the bushes. I started to fight him off not knowing at first that it was him. I stopped fighting after a few moments after I realized that it was in fact my dear friend Remus. Pleasantries where exchanged hugs and a quick kiss on the cheeks, I hadn't noticed it before but there was a big black dog. The dog took to the excitement that was shared between Remus and I, as such he started to jump all over me, mauling and lick my face. I kept trying to push him off of me but he wouldn't back off.

"God Remus get this think off of me. You know how I feel about dogs." Something about this dog just didn't feel right, its eyes looked too human and it gave me the creeps. Remus called the dog off of me.

"Sorry D'Arcy, but I promise Snuffles won't won't hurt you, he wont hurt anybody, he's a good _dog_." Remus put an extra emphasis on dog while looking at Snuffles with a look that could kill. "You see D'Arcy it is Snuffles that I wanted to talk to you about." He looked around uncomfortably. "Do you think that we could go back to the shrieking shack, I don't feel comfortable standing out here like this."

"Okay?" I questioned before I grabbed hold of Remus's hand and the collar of Snuffles and appearated us back to my home.

"Why didn't you just flo over, it would have been a whole lot easier than this cryptic messages, and what's with the dog? Since when have you been a dog person?"

"It's a friend of mine…umm…I'm…a…watching…umm snuffles…he's…"

"Remus, come on and just say it." I prodded. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before recited his answer, it sounded much like a script he had rehearsed many times before.

"I am watching Snuffles for a friend of mine, a friend that you haven't met yet so don't ask." I wasn't going to. "Since the term is about to start and my place is in the castle and so small, I was wondering if Snuffle could stay here with you?" he stopped almost out of breath.

"Really?"

"Really, please can Snuffles stay with you?" he gave me his pouty wolf face, and unfortunately it gets me every time and I with a sigh agreed.

"Thank you so much, I promise you won't regret it and that I will be here as often as I can to deal with Snuffles." He spun me around and kissed me before he set me down and disappered leaving me alone with Snuffles.

"Remus! Remus!" I yelled after him as he disappeared. Salazar damn that man. I conjured a cage and tried to coax the Snuffles into it. After 45 minutes of trying and no success, I just gave up. What was the point if he didn't want to go in. I retreated to the kitchen to make me some food. Snuffles followed right behind. I made some yummy chicken masla with naan, by the time that I got to serving myself. There was Snuffles giving me the same look that Remus does every time that he wanted something.

"FINE!" I yelled at him, "but you are eating on the floor." I dished up a serving for him and placed it on the floor in front of him as I sat at the table and ate my food. I moved so that I couldn't see him as he really did give me the creeps. HE stayed on my feet as I cleaned up. Snuffles even tried to follow me into the shower, which was never going to happen. I kicked him out before I got in. I could hear him whimpering at the door as showered. I changed in the bathroom because of the creepy feeling that I got from him. I don't know why I agreed, I guess its my soft spot for that fucking werewolf. God I am so dumb. Going to be that night was ridiculous. I kept trying to lock Snuffles out and it just wouldn't work. I kept trying to shut him in the bathroom it didn't work leaving him in the living room he just followed. Tired I gave up. Snuffles jumped up into bed with me. He started off lying across my chest. I pushed him off and he moved to my legs. Merlin that dog was heavy. I fell asleep to him lying across my legs, but woke up to him snuggled up to my side, his face in my and his paws across my stomach. It was almost like the damned thing was trying to spoon with me. After a few days I gave up trying to fight him. It was just easier to give in to the oddness of the dog than to fight it. He slept in my bed, ate my food, followed me around every where the only place that I didn't allow him was I the bathroom with me. That's not to say that he didn't try. Things in my place started to get weird. I would leave and come back and things would be rearranged. Books missing, glass broken. I would hear a male voice, but go and see where it was coming from but there would be nothing there. I was sick of feeling crazy so I placed surveillance spell on some muggle equipment, and placed it around my place. It took a few days for me to get anything but when I finally I was pissed when I reviewed the footage.


End file.
